Bookmarked Podcast number 300: “Adversarial Interoperability: Reviving an Elegant Weapon From a More Civilized Age to Slay Today’s Monopolies” by Cory Doctorow

Adversarial Interoperability, a useful concept to keep in mind. In part the IndieWeb is a form of this, as it offers a way of staying outside walled gardens, while still being able to pass messages back and forth through its gates (i.e. API’s), through POSSE / sometimes PESOS. Though some platforms, Facebook actually, made the ‘counter offer’ of switching off their API’s. Twitter similarly has been on a path of absorbing into itself all kinds of apps (e.g. Tweetdeck) that were independent parts of the ecosystem growing on Twitter’s API, and increasing the threshold for access to the API.

Interoperability is a core value to maintain. Use it.

Adversarial interoperability is the consumer’s bargaining chip in these coercive “negotiations.” More than a quarter of Internet users have installed ad-blockers, making it the biggest consumer revolt in human history. These users are making counteroffers: the platforms say, “We want all of your data in exchange for this service,” and their users say, “How about none?” Now we have a negotiation!

Cory Doctorow